1. Field of Invention
This invention relates in general to Orthopedic Surgery and more specifically to reducing of bone fractures from the surface of the limb.
2. Description of Prior Art
Setting of fractures, also known as fracture reduction, generally requires the application of traction to the fractured limb and the manipulation of the bone fragments, under x-ray guidance, to align the bone. In fractures of the long bones, such as femur, due to the tremendous forces exerted by the muscles on the bone, reduction of the fractured bone often requires maneuvering of the fragments with large counteracting forces applied by the orthopedic surgeon and the assistants at multiple locations of the limb. In the course of this procedure, whether it is done in the Emergency Room or under sterile conditions in the Operating Room with fluoroscopy in use, the surgeon must overcome several important problems:
(a) While the fracture is being reduced, in order to maintain the relative alignment of the bone fragments, the surgeon and assistants must continually apply the counteracting forces until a cast or an intramedullary fixation is put in place.
(b) During reduction, the surgeon's hands and arms and those of the assistants are exposed to x-ray which presents undesirable health hazards.
(c) The need for assistants during the reduction hinders the full control of the surgeon over the procedure and at the same time adds to the cost of the health care.
In the prior art, fracture reducing devices are well known. Examples include U.S. Pat. No. 4,558,697 (1985), to Wu and U.S. Pat. No. 4,471,768 (1984), to Ciullo. These devices fail to provide satisfactory solution to aforementioned problems. Specifically, in difficult cases where the fragments are continually pulled apart by the muscles, these prior art devices require the surgeon to continuously apply the counteracting forces in order to maintain the achieved reduction, until the fixation is in place. Furthermore, although some prior art devices allow the surgeon's hands to be relatively away from the direct path of x-ray, nevertheless, because the surgeon must continually apply the counteracting forces through these devices and of necessity stand near the limb while x-ray is in use, his hands are still in the vicinity of the x-ray field and do receive some undesirable exposure. Another shortcoming of the prior art devices, especially in cases where fragments are continually pulled apart by the muscles, is that they require assistants to help the surgeon, either in operating the device or in putting the fixation in place while the reduction is being maintained using the device. This need for assistants hinders the full control of the surgeon over the procedure and adds to the cost of the health care.
Accordingly, several objects and advantages of the present invention are:
(a) to provide an apparatus for the orthopedic surgeon to apply large counteracting forces to manipulate and reduce fractures without the need for assistants; PA1 (b) to provide an apparatus which, during every step of the reduction as well as when the full reduction is achieved, can be set by the surgeon to maintain the achieved alignment of bone fragments by itself, thus enabling the surgeon to completely step out of the area of x-ray during the imaging process; PA1 (c) to provide an apparatus which can be set by the surgeon to maintain the achieved alignment of the fragments by itself, thus freeing the surgeon's hands to put in place the cast or the intramedullary fixation as indicated.